Architects' costs

[INDENT]Hello, we are currently building a single-family house in NRW through a construction company.
thankfully, the shell is already standing.
the whole project is still developing miserably, besides planning errors already at the beginning of the shell construction, now further mistakes are added, e.g. as contractually agreed, no soil investigation was carried out..

there is a scope of services description listing all building elements and also some construction companies which change afterwards or now during the construction phase...
there is also a payment schedule which, however, is not consistent with the scope of services description and does not adhere to all individual payment amounts..
thus the fixed price cannot be maintained either and we will probably have to pay a lot extra..
the construction company also only issues invoices and does not accept any of the trades, how could they.. no expert is available and there is nothing to gain.

now we are considering whether to terminate the whole project with the construction company and engage an architect who is already well-established in this building area..

he would take over our project and contractually complete everything..
with some skill we would get an overview of all companies and could obtain offers/trades to get an overview of the costs or the difference
the architect could take over construction management, i.e. could check the offers/tenders of the craftsmen and accept the work, that would probably be about 38% of the fee schedule ??
question to the experts: "what would the architect cost us for a planned house price of 153,100.00 euros or does the increased price apply then?

we would appreciate a little information and could then be sure that our current emergency situation is not further exploited...
thank you in advance

Regards, Marion
[/INDENT]

Hello Marion,

[INDENT]... there is a payment plan which, however, does not align with the construction service description and does not adhere to all the individual payment amounts..
thus the fixed price cannot be maintained either and we will probably lose a lot of money..
[/INDENT]

[INDENT]
What does the payment plan have to do with the BB? Usually, it is listed in the contract for work or identified as a separate appendix.

the construction company only issues the invoices and does not approve any of the trades, how could they.. no expert present and there is nothing to gain. now we are considering whether to terminate the whole project with the construction company and turn to an architect who is already well established in this building area..

Before you terminate the contract, you should definitely consult a lawyer and also definitely initiate a proof of evidence procedure! If you don’t do this, it may be that, among other things, warranty disputes arise later with the architect then commissioned. In addition, a "clean" transition from one contractor to the next must be ensured; otherwise, how would you know – in the worst-case scenario – to whom you can bill the damage?

the architect could take over construction management, could check the offers/tenders of the craftsmen and approve the executions, which would probably amount to a total of 38% of the fee table?? Question to the experts: "what would the architect cost us for a planned house price of 153,100.00 Euro or does the increased price apply then?

If the architect does nothing other than accompany constructions in terms of building regulations, he can be a good choice. If he also operates an architectural office with the usual tasks of an architect, you should find out exactly whether he even has the necessary time window for your construction project. If not, external construction management would certainly be more appropriate.

The architect always calculates his fee according to the fee table, which is based on the chargeable construction costs. That means the basis for his calculation is what funds still need to be spent on the construction now.

From now on, based on the architect’s calculated construction costs, these would be:

1. Preparation of the award 10%
2. Participation in the award 4%
3. Site supervision 31%
4. Site management and documentation 3%




[/INDENT]
Kind regards

Hello,

the architect calculates his costs based on the total construction costs of the project. However, he will not use the costs of the current house price as a basis, but will calculate these himself. The total costs then form the basis for his fee calculation. I do not know which share of which planning phases he still has to provide; it depends on the planning and construction status.

Regards

Hello everyone,
thank you for your advice and tips.
Regarding the topic of [Bauleistungsbeschreibung/Zahlungsplan], I will explain the following: The construction project is planned as turnkey, and accordingly the [Bauleistungsbeschreibung] is formulated. For this reason, in the payment plan, trades/fixtures are not listed or included, and contractually the construction company would also accept the completion of the trades according to the construction status (warranty), which does not happen but only the payment is demanded. Where this leads is probably clear... this risk in interior finishing/technology is far too great and the expert could then only confirm this as well, so the change seems pointless to me?
But what will the architect cost if construction costs are already rising anyway,
it should remain affordable for us...

Best regards

Hi,
so the billing, as already mentioned, is according to HOAI (Fee structure for architects and engineers). The basis, as already mentioned, is the construction costs. But nobody knows them. And then it depends on which service phases the architect still has to deliver. Nobody knows that either.

Let's assume that the construction costs actually remain at €150,000 and that service phases 6-8 are to be provided, then you should already expect around €10,000.

Regards